I Guess Its Time To Bash Tenant's Rights Again

As if it's not hard enough being a tenant in San Francisco...


Today on SFgate.com, the webpage the San Francisco Chronicle, there was a headline link to one of the blogs which stated, "Why are so many S.F. Homes vacant?" Underneath that, the subtitle reads, "San Francisco has a higher rate of vacancies than the state and surrounding counties. Is rent control to blame?"


Because that's not in the least bit priming the pump for some more anti-tenant rhetoric, is it? I suppose that's the way the responsible journalism organization makes its money. It takes a target that easy to not like, in this case those awful tenants, and then suggests a problem that may or may not be caused by them.


The big selling point of the "article" is that vacancy rates in San Francisco are hovering around 8.3%.However, a paragraph later, the author notes that vacancy rates in California are hovering at 8.1%. Somehow, a .2% difference represents a drastic difference in the vacancy rates and therefore must mean that there is a problem in our fair city.


Well, if you look at the census data itself, you will see that in fact California does have a vacancy rate throughout the state of 8.1%. and if you bother to look at the last column, you'll also note that there is a margin of error of + or -.2%. so if you do that really complicated map that you learned in the first grade, and you subtract 8.1% from 8.3%, then you will find that there is only a .2% difference. Or you might find that San Francisco's vacancy rate the margin of error.


But I guess it makes for a better tagline to blame the tenants for a problem that doesn't exist. What else should we expect from a paper that ignores have problems, unless it doesn't fit into their nice and neat worldview? And a big thank you to the author of that blog, Jenny Pisillo, for giving such a fair and balanced piece which will only serve to give the landlord lobby one more piece of ammunition to use against the tenants. Perhaps she can go back to doing what you do best, which is highlighting houses for sale and their prices.